Music and Cats

Come into my kitchen, pull my stained, tattered copy of The Vegetarian Epicure off its shelf, set the book on its spine on the counter, and remove your hands. The book will fall open, inevitably, to page 140: Mushrooms Berkeley. I first tasted Anna Thomas’ recipe for mushrooms and peppers simmered in a rich, spicy-sweet red wine sauce 25 years ago, during my senior year of college, and it became one of my favorite recipes for special occasion meals. Each time that I cooked the recipe, I would laugh at Thomas’ note that, when finished, “the mushrooms and peppers will be very dark and evil looking, but irresistible in flavor and aroma.” And indeed they were. However, as I grew older, the idea of cooking a pound of mushrooms in half a cup of butter, half a cup of brown sugar, and lots of salty condiments seemed less and less like a good idea. I last made Mushrooms Berkeley perhaps 8 years ago.

Recently, on a damp, chilly evening, I was browsing through Deborah Madison’s The Savory Way, a cookbook that I acquired years ago, then “lost” on my bookshelves. In the section on soups and stews, I noticed a recipe called Mushrooms Flagstaff. Above the recipe, Madison writes:

“One recipe that many people have mentioned to me recently is Mushrooms Berkeley from Anna Thomas’s book The Vegetarian Epicure. Having missed it in the seventies, I gave it a try recently. The mushrooms looked dark and evil, as the author had promised, and had an enticing aroma. They were a little richer and sweeter than anyone remembered, but they were very tasty.”

In Mushrooms Flagstaff, Madison reduced the butter in Mushrooms Berkeley by three quarters, and the sugar by half. She also added dried shiitake mushrooms and tofu, and substituted red bell pepper for Berkeley’s green ones.

I had to try this recipe. And, because Paul is on a low-sodium diet, I had to change it. Instead of Dijon mustard (which average ~125 mg sodium per teaspoon), I used Gulden’s brown mustard (50 mg per teaspoon). We can no longer find low-sodium Worcestershire sauce, so we use Lee & Perrins, which has 65 mg per teaspoon. Instead of soy sauce, I used Shirakiku salt-free shoyu, which, at 10 mg sodium per tablespoon, is much heart healthier than regular soy sauce, at ~1100 mg per tablespoon, or “lower-sodium” soy sauce with ~550 milligrams sodium per tablespoon. Total sodium in the recipe, if made with dijon mustard and regular soy sauce: 5010 mg, or 1250 mg per serving. That’s over half the recommended daily intake of sodium for folks without any cardiac health issues. Total sodium in the recipe, as modified: 1055 mg, or 261 mg per serving.

The finished dish, with modifications, was delicious — not as sweet and buttery as Mushrooms Berkeley, but more sophisticated. The dried mushrooms add flavor and textural contrast. And it was healthier than either of the originals.

Mushrooms Flagstaff… or perhaps Seattle
serves 4 as a main course, 6-8 as a side dish

3 tablespoons brown mustard
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup + 2 tablespoons dry red wine
2 tablespoons salt-free shoyu
lots of freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms
3/4 cup boiling water
1 pound firm white mushrooms
1 onion
1 red bell pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil (or butter, or half of each)

Whisk together the mustard, Worcestershire, and brown sugar. Whisk in the wine and shoyu to form a smooth sauce. Grind in black pepper to taste. Set aside.

Cover the dried mushrooms with boiling water; allow to soften about 10 minutes. Cut the fresh mushrooms into 1/4″ slices (or, if they’re small, in halves). Dice the onion into 1/4″ squares, and the red pepper into 1/2″ squares. Remove the shiitakes from their soaking liquid, and cut them into bite-sized strips, removing any hard stem ends. Reserve the soaking liquid.

In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil and/or butter. Add the onion, and cook over medium heat several minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the white mushrooms and bell pepper; saute until the mushrooms release their liquid and that liquid cooks off. When the vegetables start to brown, add the shiitake mushrooms. Saute for a couple of minutes more, then add the sauce and the mushroom soaking liquid.

Lower heat, and simmer slowly for 30-45 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and reduced. Serve over rice or noodles. If you’re not vegetarian, this makes a wonderful side dish with beef tenderloin.

Tags: 1 Comment